There are various applications or environments wherein structural raceways are used to house electrical components and/or circuitry to hide the circuitry, to protect the circuitry or for other purposes.
An example of such an environment is in space divider systems for dividing offices or other interior regions into smaller work areas. Such systems normally include a plurality of upright panels releasably joined together, and, in contemporary environments, the panels are individually prewired, with electrical connectors or terminating power blocks of adjacent panels being joined by flexible electrical components. Such systems afford the user high flexibility in arranging and rearranging work areas to meet changing work situations.
Delivery of necessary power and communications service to the various work areas normally is accomplished in one of two methods. Each wall panel may be prewired or a power supply and communications system may be installed in longitudinal recessed areas of the panels or under the bases of the wall panels. In the latter systems, normally a power and communication raceway structure normally extends longitudinally of the panels to facilitate the extension of both electrical and communication circuitry along the system in an efficient yet hidden and protected manner, still providing utilization of the circuitry at selected locations.
Although known raceway systems have proven highly desirable and have met with success, there nevertheless is continued attempts to improve the manufacture, usability, flexibility, dependability and convenience of such systems, particularly in endeavors to incorporate the power and communications structural raceway as an integrally associated component of panel divider systems. Accordingly, this invention relates to improvements in raceway structures of the character described.